Beauty in ruins: abandoned places in Europe and Asia – in pictures

Night souls

In an otherwise deserted area on Iceland’s south coast is this long-forgotten wreck of a Douglas DC-3 aircraft. I arrived at the location at 4am and, as we waited, polar lights appeared on the horizon. I admired this magic show until dawn and used a 90-second exposure, with some light painting added inside the plane, to capture this image.

The signal

Under the congress room of the Buzludzha monument in Bulgaria I discovered a place that seemed to be from another planet. I used my torch to light it up and discovered everything was covered with ice.

Time capsule

In Budapest I explored this derelict train graveyard. It’s in the middle of an active depot and I felt like a child escaping reality to walk for a few hours in an imagined world of steel monsters.

High frequency

This picture was taken in a disused experimental power facility near Moscow, which was closely guarded by half a dozen dogs. After a little persuasive discussion, the caretaker let us in. As the sun was setting, I had a few minutes to find the perfect point of view.

The mothership

Linnahall is a former concert hall in Tallinn, Estonia. With a two-minute exposure, I could reveal the architecture of the place, which otherwise sat in darkness. The central framing gives the photograph its power, drawing the eye right to the centre. To me, it almost looks like a spaceship.

Time implosion

A room in the former hospital in Pripyat and one of the first buildings I explored in the city. The oven appears to have exploded in the centre of the room and destroyed everything around it.

Pripyat cafe

This place, again in the city of Pripyat, used to be a cafe. I wanted to highlight the beautiful glasswork and create something unique with a long exposure and light painting. We constructed one main source of light inside the building, a second light behind the Pripyat sign to create a sense of depth and a third illuminating the cafe’s original sign.

Child dream

This is from our last day in Pripyat. For the three previous days I asked myself how I could capture the famous ferris wheel from a new and original point of view. Luckily, my wish to have some snow was fulfilled, providing a dreamy ambience that totally changed Pripyat. Positioning myself on a rooftop next to the wheel, I finally captured the picture I was looking for.